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Sauternes is French for Sweet & Cadillac is a Village, not a Car

Well, it’s Monday here in France and we are currently river cruising south on the Garonne River. Earlier our morning began with breakfast at 7:00am. I tried one of the omelets and watched the chef cook mine. He squirted some olive oil into a pan and then threw in some chopped onion, chopped green peppers, chopped mushrooms, chopped ham, and bacon bits and sautéed them for about a minute. He then poured in the equivalent of two eggs on top of the sautéed vegetables. He then allowed the eggs to cook for a couple of minutes and he added some cheese. Thirty seconds later he folded it over and put it on a plate for me. I am talking one great omelet.

After breakfast we boarded our Viking buses. We were joined by four new friends: Robin and Peter Klainbard of New York and Jordie and Bill Chalupnik of League City. One nice touch on Viking is that anytime that we leave the ship for a Viking excursion, the hotel manager and assistant are at the gangway handing out bottled water.

The buses headed south out of Bordeaux and onto A62. The “A” routes are toll highways in France. The scenic landscape was an assortment of planted pine forests and vineyards. You know you’re in wine country when all you see is vineyard after vineyard.

Vineyards of the Chateau d’ Arche

The guide talked about the wine of Bordeaux but I honestly did not listen to her. She kept talking about what wine went with what food, something quite frankly I think is a personal choice. After about an hour and a half we arrived at our first stop: Chateau de Arch. They make a sweet wine (Sauternes) that you could substitute as a dessert. The qualities of wine are its color, its aroma and its taste. I was busy taking pictures and skipped the talk by a young lady of the winery about all of the intricacies of the wines. From the vineyard we were invited to taste three of the wines.

Grape Vines at the Chateau d’ Arche

These small grapes produce some of the sweetest wines

Our Wine Guide

Our tour group

Entrance to the village of Cadillac

We then climbed back into our buses and made a short trip to the village of Cadillac. I didn’t know I was mispronouncing the name all this time. The first thing I learned about French is the last letter in a word is usually not pronounced. They also don’t pronounce the “L” in some words. So the French say ”caw-di-yak” and not Cadillac.

The Moat Around the Chateau de Cadillac

There is a chateau there that was closed so we did a short walk through the little village. There is a huge wall that surrounded the town a couple of hundred years ago. See the photo. Oh, Antoine Laumet de La Mothe Cadillac was born near here in 1658 and traveled to

Walled City

Canada in 1683. He fought against the Iroquois and established the town of Detroit in 1701. The city of Cadillac, MI, Cadillac Mountain, ME and the Cadillac car are all named after him.

French candidates for President, the two on the far left win; Macron & LePen

We took the bus back to the ship where lunch was waiting for us. We will have a safety drill at 1:30 and then a nap. Oh, what about yesterday, no blog? We didn’t do anything yesterday except visit a museum and I don’t like museums.

Note from MA: But he DOES wander off and take hundreds of photographs!! Later!

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One thought on “Sauternes is French for Sweet & Cadillac is a Village, not a Car”

Anonymoussays:

Wayne –
Thanks for the update and pics of places I’ve not seen or heard about. Also – thanks for going in my place and providing excellent photos and commentary. Makes me feel like I was on the trip with you and MA. Keep the updates coming. (BBNP next !!!!!!)